Books! - Friday 11/9/2007

Gotta say. I love books.

This one was recommended to me by some very enthusiastic park rangers at Death Valley when I was up there researching for the novel I'm working on. I am so glad I picked up a copy.

Upon finishing it this morning and reading through all the extra materials at the end of the book, I went straight to my notebook to write about the ideas that it provoked. Wrote about it on Good Reads (the same review that appears here.) Wrote an email to the author himself about some of the issues the book raises about the National Parks Service.

On the surface, it's a story about the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson, who spent 28 summers as a ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. But it's also about what it takes to be a back country ranger, a job that requires long absences from home and society, and whose main perk is living in the wilderness. And it's about our National Parks Service's attitude toward these individuals.

If you've ever hiked or backpacked or even looked lovingly up at the Sierras from below, you should give this book a try. It makes me want to see the country that Blehm writes about.

The only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that it's a bit long on details and lagged a bit in the middle for me, but given the complexity of the story and Blehm's obvious commitment to getting it right, this can easily be forgiven.

Be sure and read the extra stuff at the back of the paperback version. There are some very fine nuggets there, not the least of which is Blehm's opinion about what happened and his accounting of his unique qualifications for writing this particular story.

The number of people who loved and admired Randy Morgenson, who is never-the-less portrayed as a real and flawed man, speaks volumes about who he was and what he gave to those he met.

The binder clip? That's because I take my books to bed. Sometimes it gets a little rough in there.